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A stream so narrow you hardly got your ankles wet split a community for over four decades. By an accident of landscape, the fifty inhabitants of Mödlareuth, a tiny settlement surrounded by coniferous woods, fields and breathtaking views, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War conflict. They had the bad luck to cross Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Soviet sector, a frontier that was established first by a fence and then by a partition. US troops called it Mini Berlin.

Memorialising the Past

Several months after their own division was breached, and prior to their nation had become one in 1990, a group of local people set about commemorating their past. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the 36th annual remembrance of the fall of the German barrier, the Museum of German Division Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was publicly launched by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the show was not completely ready. Telling the villagers who lived through the past era, Steinmeier stated: “You were observers of an cruel division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbours into foreigners.”

“You were bystanders of an brutal division, which pulled families asunder and turned neighbors into foreigners.”

Historical Background

Even at its creation in 1810, the village straddled the Royal Bavaria and the Principality of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its men the designation Heinrich and numbering them in order by birth. As Steinmeier informed the audience, the quirk did not stand in the way of the locals drinking in the same pub, going to the same place of worship and enrolling their kids to the same learning center.

Following WWII Division

Subsequently occurred the second world war. Immediately after they came, the Russians put up wooden posts by the creek. For a annual period they seized the complete community, establishing their command in a building on the western side, embellishing it with a portrait of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The US forces persuaded them to retreat to the other side of the creek. For a while, villagers could still jump across, though as restrictions became stricter they were obliged to present identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to return at after dark.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the legal shutting of the boundary. In 1966, as in Berlin previously in 1961, a barrier was built, with landmines, anti-tank obstacles and watchtowers. The residents could still observe each other by climbing hills, but on the east side waving and shouting were forbidden. A local woman was added to a GDR intelligence surveillance list for responding “likewise” to a West German local who said her “prosperous new year”.

Museum Creation

I was told narratives like these by Robert Lebegern, the museum’s director, who has spent a large part of his professional career creating it. Villagers were polled early on about how much wall they desired to maintain. They opted for a portion on the Bavarian perimeter, near where one of their own succeeded to get away in the darkest hours with a ladder, subsequently the boundary was heavily strengthened.

Preserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are preserved together with a series of displays depicting the most significant events in the hamlet’s chronicle. As we stroll, Robert Lebegern enumerates the restrictions: no one could get closer than 5km of the frontier. Farmers had to obtain particular approval to care for their produce; the spouse could work the agricultural equipment but never both, in case they tried to make a run for it. Military personnel stood watch.

Wider Context

The frontier between West Germany and the German Democratic Republic stretched nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the northern part to here in the south. Berlin is commemorated and memorialised the most, but in excess of double the number persons (well over 300) died attempting to traverse it in rural areas than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95 percent of efforts to cross were unsuccessful.

Community Life

The majority of Mödlareuth’s villagers were rural laborers or skilled workers, who accommodated to dwelling in the uncertain territory between two ideological spheres by staying low-profile and tending to their farms. They did not backed the socialist government nor opposed it, the director states.

Tourism

For tourists, however, the settlement became a type of site of interest. Approximately 15k came to see annually, viewing tools in hand, to stare – and then rapidly depart. In 1983, the US president, George Bush, was guided by the German defense official.

25 years after unification, Tannbach, a TV series about a imaginary community like Mödlareuth, resulted in fresh curiosity.

Modern Evolutions

The launch of the recently established museum – with a cafe, store, film screening area and big vehicle area – is expected to